Brian
Calfano

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Brian, and I can’t recommend him highly enough! He is an exceptional person who is always approachable, supportive, and thoughtful, and a true pleasure to communicate with.

His passion, curiosity, and dedication are a driving force, and I’m incredibly grateful for his openness in sharing his experience and insights, especially in times like this. Brian’s continuous support of our projects, students, and everyone involved has made a meaningful impact, and I truly appreciate his willingness to be there, support our cause, contribute, and inspire others through his actions.

Brian is the kind of person who not only excels professionally but also inspires those around him through his generosity, kindness, and commitment. It has been a privilege to collaborate with him, and I look forward to many more opportunities to work together!

I worked with Brian on several projects for Latakoo. I was impressed with his tolerance of the uncertain, something I haven’t found in too many project managers. That’s served him well at Latakoo, which seems to give him early-stage assignments that Brian can follow through on to stretch the organization’s capabilities. On the projects we worked on, Brian dealt well with the adversity we faced, keeping a positive spin on developments. The scope of our projects changed as we worked on them, and he made the required adjustments smoothly to keep the projects on track.

Brian is also an accomplished filmmaker, something that seems to have influenced his approach to his other work. In his documentary projects, he pursues them with a single-minded focus, taking them from idea to distribution without being discouraged by the twists and turns of the development and funding cycles, using his pleasant demeanor to keep his production team’s spirits up. That’s his approach to other projects — keeping them going in a good-natured way when others might have given up.

While Brian was a political science professor at MSU, he was also our on-air election analyst at KOLR. He appeared on numerous newscasts helping viewers understand every aspect of politics. He also spent hours with us on election nights. Then he came to me with a radical proposal. Brian asked if he could be an intern for a semester. He told me he loved TV news and wanted to experience working in a newsroom. His request blew me away. Of course I said yes!

What an intern he turned out to be! What a journalist he turned out to be! During that internship, Brian submitted himself to learn everything he could about being a journalist. Brian went on to produce documentaries and special programming for the station that were top-notch journalism and compelling TV. Brian’s career as a journalist and his love of journalism was off and running. And it all started because he was a professor who was humble enough to ask if he could be a lowly intern.

I had the pleasure of collaborating with Brian on a recent article, and the experience reinforced my already high admiration for his talents as both a political scientist and a journalist.

What struck me most was his extraordinary work ethic and efficiency. Whether he was on a plane, traveling between commitments, or working at crazy odd hours, he consistently moved our project forward without sacrificing quality. Indeed, I was humbled by how quickly he was able to turn around drafts as he seamlessly integrated his writing with mine. He has an uncommon ability to manage multiple demanding, high-level projects simultaneously, invariably with excellent results.

Beyond his productivity, Brian brings a rare combination of intellectual creativity, deep substantive knowledge, and journalistic instinct, which helped make him one of the most proficient scholars in our discipline. He has a remarkable command of both political science (while he has specialties, he has also contributed substantive and insightful work across a variety of subfields) and journalism. He thinks and writes with exceptional clarity. It’s of literally no surprise that his work has earned well-deserved recognition and awards as he combines journalism and deep insight into politics and political science.

Perhaps most importantly, he is an outstanding collaborator — reliable, responsive, generous with his time and expertise, and committed to producing top-notch work. I recommend him highly and without reservation.

Two decades on air and on stage — anchoring and reporting in several markets, live political analysis, panel moderation and event hosting, from newsroom sets to the Cannes Film Festival.

Documentaries built end-to-end — reporting, directing and producing — through award-winning festival runs, plus original storytelling for brands and newsrooms.

Peer-reviewed research on media, politics and audiences — survey design, content analysis and empirical testing, translated into findings people outside academia can actually use.